My last post was about the review and interview with me that
Dan Pink posted earlier in the week about Good Boss, Bad Boss. I thought it would be fun to
repeat the last question that he asked me and my answer.
Here is my answer to the question in the title. Do you agree or disagree? Who would you add to lists of bossholes and great bosses?
Let’s start with the bossholes. My least favorite CEO in recent
years was Carly Fiorina because I witnessed her lead changes that helped
destroy one of the most constructive organizational cultures I have
ever encountered. I worked closely with a couple HP insiders during
much her reign (and before that) and saw the spirit of that wonderful
place die under her leadership – it wasn’t all her fault, other forces
were in place. But a CEO who does massive layoffs and then buys
(actually leases) a very fancy new corporate jet for herself ought to be
ashamed. She was infamous for “shooting the messenger” and for being
impatient with implementation – for example (very similar to President
Bush’s infamous “Mission Accomplished” speech) Carly announced that the
merger integration with Compaq was complete and successful to the horror
of people on her senior team who still believed that it wasn’t nearly
done. (Indeed, for example, Mark Hurd took out millions and millions of
IT costs when he took charge that were created by the unfinished
merger.) Carly’s unfortunate experience shows that, to be an effective
leader, you not only need some wisdom, you also need the right
experience. Note that she never had profit and loss responsibility in
any prior job before coming to work at HP (this was reported by Fortune
and I have confirmed it from other sources). Right around the Compaq
merger, a very knowledgeable Silicon Valley insider who knew Carly well
said something I thought was a joke, something like “Carly ought to go
into politics; she gives great speeches and there really aren’t any
tangible deliverables.” As most readers know, now Carly is running for
Senate in California.
To pick a second bosshole, I believe the current champion here might be Dov Charney, founder
and CEO of the American Apparel clothing empire, which is the largest
clothing manufacturer operating in the U.S. He has done good things
like paying employees high wages and providing them and their families
health insurance, and sells hip clothing and developed a great brand.
They operate 260 stores in 19 countries. But piles of evidence of
strange boss behavior and bad financial performance now hound him and
the company. Although several sexual harassment law suits against
Charney were dropped, he admits holding a staff meeting naked except for
the sock on his penis, walking around the office in just underpants and
referring to fashion models as “sluts.” The tales of such antics in
combination with deepening financial losses,
plummeting stock price, and Deloitte’s concerns about accounting
irregularities have this once high flying firm in an apparent death
spiral. Apparently, among other flaws, Mr. Charney suffered from – or
perhaps enjoyed – one of the most severe cases of power poisoning in
recent times – especially the lack of inhibition and impulsiveness that
are often part of the syndrome.
To turn to the good bosses, I am a huge fan Pixar’s Brad Bird, Academy Award winning Director of The Incredibles and Ratatouille. I was part of a group that interviewed him for the McKinsey Quarterly
a couple years back, and was taken with him. But I am in even bigger
fan after talking to multiple people at Pixar and Disney studios about
him last week. They love him and love how he encourages open argument
and makes it so fun – and as one executive who worked with Brad through
these two films told me “Everyone who works with him once can’t wait to
do it again.” And people who work with him are simply blown away by his
technical skill: John Walker, who was a Producer on both films, went on
and on with examples of Bard’s amazing technical expertise.
Finally, my favorite CEO of a large U.S. company in recent years was
AG Lafley, who led Procter & Gamble for decade. He is polite,
persistent, and instilled constructive values throughout the company.
Like Brad Bird, people loved working with him because he was so smart,
supportive, and honorable. And I love his management philosophy: “Keep
thing Sesame Street simple,” especially in light of the contrast to the
deeply complex business practices used by Wall Street firms that led to
the meltdown.
Again, please let me know your reactions — especially who should be added to the two lists.